Grad Hall

So after 4 years of having mandatory dinner on Thursdays, I now have mandatory dinner on Wednesdays. Okay, so its not really mandatory, but Grad Hall is quite a good time. For a fiver (£5), okay, £5.93 or something like that, on Wednesday night the graduate students at Jesus College get to all get together, and have a three course meal. For me, it's a great break from having microwave meals almost every night, and the best part is catching up with everyone you haven't seen for the past week since the last grad hall. It's really nice and informal, not like formal hall where you have to wear the gowns (see the matriculation photo below - yeah, try eating in one of those).
So take tonight, we had a chicken/pasta salad for appetizer, then pork with broccoli, carrots and mashed potatoes, with a burnt honey and star anise cream for dessert (um, think kind of nasty licorice tasting custard- not the best dessert I've had). And to top it all of, there's cheese and crackers and port along with tea and coffee. There is no way I could cook for myself like this. The one thing though, is I have never seen people go through so much wine, its BYO, and half the people literally bring their own 75cl bottle of wine and go through the thing all by themself. And of course once this is over we all head to the college bar, which, regretabably closes by 11:30 (reminscent of the firstie club I suppose - or it would be if I had spent more time there). Tonight unfortunately, there was some sort of drinking, um, dining society that a bunch of the undergrads had gone out with, and so we were greated at the entrance to the bar by a guy half passed out, with his pants down, throwing up in the doorway. I almost lost it then, and of course someone else threw up inside later. It's definitely strange knowing that there are 18 year olds in there throwing up legally, again, still not used to this lower drinking age. But aside from this unpleasantness, it was a great way to spend Wednesday night, especially since I have no lectures tomorrow to look forward to!